A toenail infected with Trichophyton can exhibit a symptom called tinea unguium. In fact, tinea unguium causes daily life problems attributed to a terminal and progressive symptom of athlete's foot with e.g. a brittle nail which will break off and come away.
Drugs for treating tinea unguium have conventionally been developed and they can readily be available at a drugstore. By applying the drugs to an affected part of a patient, tinea unguium symptoms can be eased in daily life.
Nevertheless, when the drugs are applied to a skin from which a nail has come away or applied between nails, some patients actually exhibit unbearable pain according to the degree of progression of a tinea unguium symptom.
When a commercially available creamy drug is used for treatment, it is necessary to rub the creamy drug on an affected part with fingers.
However, direct irritation on the affected part with fingers fails to ease pain thereon.
When a spray drug is used on an affected part, injection pressure of the spray drug irritates the affected part, thereby making it difficult to ease pain thereon.
Meanwhile, a drug contained in a one-push type container is also commercially available. Specifically, by pushing the tip of the drug container against an affected part, a valve mechanism provided inside the drug container is operated to discharge a drug inside the drug container.
However, it is necessary to push the tip portion against the affected part by pressurizing the drug contained in the one-push type container, thereby making it difficult to ease pain on the affected part.
While it is possible to apply a solution to an affected part by using a brush, a series of operations, unscrewing a cap of a solution container, putting a brush into a solution and applying a solution to the affected part with the brush, are required when a brush is used. This method is unfortunately prone to practical problems.
In view of the above problems, a drug applicator is being developed in order to reduce work for applying a drug to an affected part (Patent Document 1). The drug applicator comprises a coating part having a high water retentivity which is disposed at an opening of a drug container.
However, since the coating part of the drug applicator has a hemispheric shape, the drug applicator fails to apply a drug between nails.
In the meantime, a drug applicator having a brush is commercially available.
Nevertheless, conventional drug applicators can cause liquid dripping when a brush of the drug applicator is faced downward.
In this case, the solution moves to the tip of the brush to generate liquid droplets. To prevent the liquid droplets from falling on a non-affected part, a patient needs to push the tip of the brush against the affected part.
Since the tip of the brush is directly pushed against the affected part to irritate the same, a conventional drug applicator fails to ease pain on the affected part.